To Dwell in the House of Rancor
by Laserbeak7007
Summary: A new and mysterious being enters the Beast Wars as well as Depth Charge's own private war. I still MIGHT finish this! You never know! Bloodier than most of my fics and *gasp* no fluff so far!
1. Mysterious Rescuer

To Dwell in the House of Rancor  
  
  
  
1 By Laserbeak  
  
(First in a series)  
  
Notes: Set in season three shortly after the episode "Changing of the Guard"  
  
Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure; Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.  
  
Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)  
  
  
  
Like the last mythical unicorn rising from the deep, a long spiraling twisted tusk glittering with ivory broke the surface of the ancient ocean, followed by a puff of watery vapor as the narwhal sounded. She was facing toward land now; different from what she had once known, no longer covered with ice and snow. This was an utterly new world to her, thick with lush vegetation edged with a narrow border of white shoreline. It seemed to reach out to her like a mother's arms, offering safe haven, but she was only too aware that this new land was infested with danger, treachery, and death.  
  
Even now as she relentlessly followed the monster who had decimated her pod, the memories made her shudder involuntarily. The vivid scene played out in her mind once more of the huge metallic beast plowing into the heart of her family, rending helpless calves and even the strongest bulls to just so many pieces of blood, flesh, and bone with demented glee. The terror and loneliness filled her again so intensely that she uttered a low moan of pain, then her vision turned red with rage.  
  
This was not an emotion she could ever remember feeling before and she knew it was one that was beyond her organic kin, but it came an naturally as hunger to her. Even now she could smell the stench of the beast's corrupted spark pulsing like a beacon some yards away. She would have vengeance. She sped toward the signal without looking back.  
  
* * *  
  
"You don't seem to be having much fun, old friend. Don't tell me the years have completely taken your sense of humor," Rampage taunted as his claws tightened in the choker hold he presently had him oldest adversary in.  
  
"Eat slag and die, X," The transmetal manta ray grated out, finally stretching the last few centimeters he needed to grab his tail spear and stabbed it with all his force into the demonic crab's knee, making him shriek and release his hold long enough for Depth Charge to get to his feet and batter the Predacon aside with a well placed round-house kick.  
  
Rampage's indestructible spark glowed faintly, snaking a transparent cable of energy down to his wound and healing it instantly before is slithered back to it's container. The crab unleashed a breathless, sadistic chuckle that grew in volume till it echoed in a roar underwater "Your tricks are futile, I'm undefeatable."  
  
Depth Charge snapped off a crude spike of ragged coral to use as a makeshift sword, and swung at his enemy a second time, aiming for the crab's head. Two great red hands caught the weapon in midair, tightening their grip on it, regardless of and, in fact, seeming to take pleasure in the mech fluid that clouded the water as they did.  
  
The Maximal's optics widened slightly as his mortal enemy snapped the club in half, then, still holding both halves double-punched him in the gut and face, cracking one optic and making the manta momentarily double over in pain. He heard the sickening metallic crack as the second hand punched all the way through his exostructure, leaving vital wiring open to attack.  
  
Despite his severe injuries, he stumbled back, staying on his feet out of sheer determination. Depth Charge had no intention of losing to X, but if he did would go down fighting. With renewed rage, he ducks his head and rammed into the Predacon's chest with it full force, then grunting in pain as the crab seized him in a grip of steel.  
  
Heaving Depth Charge high over his head, Rampage snarled as he limped to a pointed rock jutting out of the ocean floor. "You're becoming an annoyance…I think it's time we said goodbye.."  
  
The crab's voice abruptly cut off as he dropped his burden to the ground, his poison green optics growing large in shock as a silver stained golden spike erupted from his midsection like some grotesque mocker of organic birth.  
  
"What the slag…" Depth Charge hissed weakly, his optics flickering as he began to feel the full extent of his wounds. He watched the spike suddenly ripped back out and free, revealing its attachment to a spotty pelted aquatic mammal. The animal paid him not heed, it's dark eyes locked on Rampage as he whirled to face it.  
  
"You again?! This time I'll be sure to finish the job." The Predacon  
  
smirked as he closed in on the creature, but it glided easily out of his reach, then suddenly charged toward him, rushing into his deadly grasp, then at the last moment turned to one side and evaded his grip and thrashing out with it's powerful tail at a pile of teetering rocks. Rampage realized his mistake too late as the small avalanche buried him, muffling his shouts of protest.  
  
The animal jerked it's head once in an almost Cybertronian gesture of approval, then it turned it's thoughtful gaze to the other bot. Depth Charge blinked, wondering slightly if it would turn on him now too, but nothing had prepared him for what happened next. The creature moved closer to him till they nearly touched, searching his optic with alien intelligence for a moment, then nudge him with it's bulbous head, effortlessly pushing him off the sea floor toward the surface.  
  
"Hey, what do you think you're doing you oversize sardine," he snapped, but was too drained to struggle as it pushing him above water, then toward shore till he could touch the sand. He regarded the beast suspiciously as it lay in the shallows, then suddenly seemed to fold into itself until it stood looking over him, on two legs in a humanoid form. Another Maximal!. His eyes traveled up the white female as the faint humming of a jet reached his auditory sensors. "Who…are you?"  
  
But she apparently had heard the ever closing sound of the engines too, for her head snapped up, then she turned and raced back out into the waves, transforming as she went, then vanishing. He tried to sit up and grimaced in pain,  
  
"Hey wait!"  
  
"Primary systems damaged…stasis lock commencing" his computer droned as his gears whined to a stop and the world grew dim.  
  
"Slag," he uttered as he fell into stasis lock.  
  
* * *  
  
"Welcome back to the Land of the Functioning, Fish-Face."  
  
Depth Charge groaned, rubbing his repaired cranium as the shield from to the CR tank lifted and he stepped out, blinking as his optics adjusted to the lighting inside the Ark once more. He didn't bother to spare Rattrap a glance, scanning the gathered Maximals who were looking at him expectantly. His thoughts felt jumbled and for a moment it felt as if he could voice one they'd all fall back into order. "Where's the girl?"  
  
Faces twisted in confusion and they all glanced at Blackarachnia, who blinked and pointed with a claw to herself. "What are you asking about me for, Bait-Breath?"  
  
"Not YOU," he fairly spat in disgust, finally recovering his normal attitude. Why waste his time with this group of clowns? He doubted they had one logically processing database between the collective lot of them. Shaking his head, he shoved his way between Rhinox and Cheetor and headed for the blast doors. 


	2. Captured

To Dwell in the House of Rancor  
  
(Chapter 2)  
  
  
  
1 By Laserbeak  
  
1.1 The sun glinted off his metallic skin as the manta ray glided eastward, using the celestial bodies and his own internal navigation system to calculate the time he'd been patrolling. Another day wasted and no X.  
  
His com crackled to life with a burst of watered down static, then Optimus Primal's voice. "Depth Charge, Rhinox picked up a faint moment off to your right, 100 yards. It might be our unknown ally. Track and identify."  
  
Of all the idiotic tasks…taking orders from a monkey. He fought done his frustration and muttered an affirmative, scanning for the disturbance. In the distance he sensed a movement in the ocean, a ripple that could only be the echo of living beings shifting in it. Then he relaxed, or as much as he ever did, The creatures as they appeared proved his hypothesis. They head large, rounded heads and were rich black in color, roughly about the size of orcas. Dozens of them swam together in perfect sequence, frolicking to and fro as if life were merely a game and they it's chest pieces.  
  
"Relax, Primal," he grumbled into his com, "Just a herd of pilot whales. Depth Charge out." What a joke. These Maximals were the ones supposedly chosen to safeguard the future of the Transformer race? He shook his head.  
  
Flouting just under the surface, he rested a moment, neither enjoying his surroundings nor detesting them. To him this was simply a battleground, nothing more or less. Without warning his com erupted into static again. "What now, Primal.." He stopped short a crackling and clicking took its place, interrupted by the occasional low thrum. "What the slag? Whale sonar shouldn't be interfering with.."  
  
"Alpha, do you copy? Beta, Beta, answer!" a high, distinctly feminine voice replied suddenly, sounding frantic and confused.  
  
"Who the Pit is this?" he demanded, irritated. If this was another of Rattrap's practical jokes..  
  
"Tidal-wav, survivor. I am nar. Alone. Who are you?" The voice seemed uncomfortably unused to basic language. Could it be the unknown bot? Another stasis-pod activated?  
  
He swam toward the signal slowly, wary of attack. "Depth Charge, Maximal Recon and Aquatic Forces Commander. Show yourself."  
  
There was a pause on the other side then a slightly smaller, streamlined form emerged from the cove. It was the same horned beast he'd seen before. He transformed, his energon cutlass in hand. The outsider tensed, then almost reluctantly took robot form. She held no weapons currently but was alert to forewarning signs. Her purple optics glinted in sharp contrast with her green and white speckled humanoid form.  
  
"You heal quickly," she noted, glancing over his exostructure and seeing no sign of his wounds before returning her gaze to his face. "What is it you want?"  
  
"An explanation for starters," he spat gruffly, closing the space between them, "If you won't offer one willingly I can take you back to the Maximal base to extract it from you."  
  
Her optics narrowed at this. "Among the land dwellers? I think not. I do not associate with beings from the surface and I am on a quest that can not be detained. Even now you are wasting my time."  
  
"And you're chatting my audio sensors toward burnout, Fem. I have a job to do and you don't exactly have a choice in the matter." The water hissed as he instantly snapped a pair of electro-charged cuffs around her slender wrists, jerking her toward the shoreline.  
  
The female started in shock then began to struggle with the desperation and anger of a netted porpoise. "Let me go! Unhand me, you..you barbarian!!"  
  
"Watch me."  
  
* * *  
  
Cheetor 's head jerked up from the monitors he'd been watching,"Yo, Big Bot! Got Depth Charge coming in at top speed …and he's got someone with him. the computer can't identify the signature."  
  
"Hmmm," The hulking 25 foot commander of the Maximals leaned over the beeping black and green screen, rubbing his chin thoughtfully "Open the blast doors, Cheetor, but be ready with the autoguns just incase."  
  
"Yes, Sir!" The teenage cat snapped off a slightly overdone salute and typed in a number of commands, his chest puffed out in exaggerated self- importance. It seemed you could put a child in battle, but you couldn't force them to grow up. Optimus allowed himself a smile as he turned to greet the opening blast doors and was met with a disturbing sight. Depth Charge stormed in, dragging a struggling female bot who was repeatedly kicking him and screaming profanities. Not the most common of entrances. The transmetal 2 gorilla raised an optic ridge and stepped forward to intercept them.  
  
"Release me at once, you metal moron! I'll rip your spleen out and use it to stab you through the gizzard, you bloody minnow!" she shrieked, kicking him in the shin while twisting around and trying to bite him, "I demand you set me free!"  
  
Depth Charge whirled and seized her by the throat, snarling in her face," Look, I've had enough from you, so pipe down you little.."  
  
"Depth Charge!" Optimus thundered, now towering over them. "Let her go."  
  
"My Pleasure, Primal," The manta hissed, dropping her prompting so that she stumbled and collapsed to her knees, still bound and unbalanced by the electro-cuffs.  
  
She gritted her teeth and got slowly to her feet, optics flashing defiance up at the massive maximal that was Optimus Primal. "You have no right to treat me in this manner! I have offered you no offense and thus this confinement is of grave insult! Take these off this instant!" She thrust the cuffs up at him, her poisonous gaze daring him not to do as she asked.  
  
The Maximal leader faltered a bit, not used to being spoke to this way, then nodded to Depth Charge. "Take them off now."  
  
Grunting in disgust, the manta deactivated and removed the restraints, tucking them away with a last scornfully look at Tidal-wav before stalking out.  
  
"Forgive his…lack of manners," Optimus explained soothingly as she rubbed her wrists, "Depth Charge is a bit rough around the edges…"  
  
"The man is an uncouth muscle-bound neanderthal," she shot back shortly, still dusting herself off in a manner that reminded him of a fancy bird who'd had it's feathers ruffled. He surpressed a chuckle.  
  
"Well, I'm sure you'll find more agreeable member in our ranks. I'm Optimus Primal, Maximal commander. And you are?"  
  
"Tidal-wav, the last surviving member of my pod." She glanced down at her robot hands and body, considering his words, then back at him, "And…a Maximal like you?"  
  
He nodded. "Yes, you are. Don't be alarmed your pod was probably damaged in the fall to Earth, which is why you can't remember much from your files, but I'm sure that will come back to you in time. Come, meet the others. This is Rhinox, Rattrap, and Cheetor..you've already, ahem, meet Depth charge…there are two others, Blackarachnia and Silverbolt, but you'll have to meet them later. They're out on patrol."  
  
"Oh, I'll not stay here!" she interrupted quickly, making him blink in surprise, then hastened to soften her words. "That is, I thank you for the offer, but while I am…of your kind…I prefer the sea to land and will return there, at least for now."  
  
A flicker of something akin to remembrance passed through his optics as he nodded, "That is your right of course, as others have chosen before you, but I hope you'll call on us from time to time..we need all the help we can get."  
  
"Yah and I bet that water mode of yours could come in ultra gear handy!" Cheetor chimed in, moving in closer to check her out that Tidal-wav necessarily thought comfortable. Her beast mode's flesh itched from drying out and she shuffled her feet uneasily.  
  
"Yes, of course," she replied, moving away from the cheetah and the rodent who was eyeing her in a way that made her skin crawl. She stumbled back toward the door and out it, fighting the urge to make a run for the water. What kind of foolhardy operation had she thrown her lot in with now?  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
Depth Charge watched the new female leave the base and return to the shoreline, his gaze cold and critical. Another goody-two-shoed, idealistic Maximal who lived off the impractical notion they could save the universe. Like he cared. All that mattered was X. And if she interfered with his destroying X again she'd have to be dealt with. Permanently. 


End file.
